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Garden Travel - July Jaunt

Join The Friends of The Frelinghuysen Arboretum and DIG IT! for another exceptional garden experience on Wednesday, July 17, 2013. Leave the driving to us for a day as we enjoy a July Jaunt in the Brandywine Valley.

“OMG” may be your first utterance as you step into the first garden. “Exquisite!” may follow as garden after garden takes your breath away.

Welcome to Chanticleer, a 35-acre Pleasure Garden, touted (and correctly so) as one of the most beautiful public gardens in the United States. We will have a guided tour of distinct yet unified garden areas, each designed by a horticulturist, and the first floor of the Rosengarten estate’s main house.

The gardens include:

the Teacup Garden, a jungle of potted tropicals surrounding an Italianate fountain with an adjoining small formal garden;

Bell's Woodland, where paths wind through East Coast forest plants and sidle close to a creek with a sculpted bridge over wetland plants.

A Ruin Garden created on the foundation of Adolph Rosengarten, Jr.’s razed home is a perennial and sculpture “landscape theater” beside a Mediterranean Gravel Garden.

The Tennis Court Garden features colorful foliage with a central bed surrounded by color-themed beds, rose arbors and a central axis.

Chanticleer House Garden surrounds the main house with several perennial border, terrace gardens, fountains and annual beds.

The Pond Garden is wildlife heaven consisting of several ponds and dense, floriferous plantings that offer shelter to Little Green Herons, frogs, hummingbirds, damsel flies, and lots of small birds. Sit on the grass and enjoy!

Asian Woods sustains collections of plants native to Korea, Japan, and China laid out in layers like North American forests.

The Serpentine winds through rows of conifers and crops to an almost pagan semi-circle rimmed by gingko trees dedicated to Flora.

Practicality not to be outdone, the Cut Flower and Vegetable Gardens produce food and blossoms for arrangements.

Click for more pictures of Terrain

Tired and hungry? Or looking for some haricot vert earrings in gold? We’ll find fun and sustenance when we stop for lunch and shopping at Terrain, a nursery/restaurant and garden accessory boutique. (Not to worry, there’s lots of room under the bus.) We’ll enjoy a rustic, farm-to-table lunch in the Garden Shed where bread is served in terracotta pots and ice tea is drunk from mason jars. We’ll finish the day off with home-made ice cream and toppings at the Ice Cream Bar – a perfect cool ending to a hot, mid-summer garden tour!

Cost: $100 members / $125 non-members
(Now would be a great time to consider joining the Friends, individual memberships are only $25 - click here to join on-line)